Tracking queuing delay and performing related congestion control in information centric networking

ABSTRACT

A network device that performs information centric networking (ICN) in an ICN network receives an Interest from a consumer as the Interest traverses an Interest path to a data responder. The Interest requests data by name and indicates an accumulated Interest queuing delay experienced by the Interest on the Interest path. The network device enqueues the Interest to an Interest queue and dequeues the Interest from the Interest queue, and determines a local Interest queuing delay between the enqueing and dequeuing. The network device increases the indicated accumulated Interest queuing delay by the local Interest queueing delay, and forwards the Interest along the Interest path. The network device receives a Data packet satisfying the Interest as the Data packet traverses the Interest path in reverse. The network device increases an accumulated Data queueing delay indicated in the Data packet, and then forwards the Data packet to the consumer.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to queuing delay and congestion controlin Information Centric Networking, including Named Data Networking (NDN)and Content-Centric Networking (CCN).

BACKGROUND

Effective congestion control in a data network relies on some knowledgeof queueing delays experienced by data packets that traverse a networkpath from one point to another in the network. Information CentricNetworking (ICN) involves forwarding Interests that request data by nameto a data responder, and forwarding Data packets that satisfy theInterest to a consumer along a reverse of a path traversed by theInterest.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an Information Centric Network (ICN) environmentin which embodiments directed to determining, tracking, reporting, andusing accumulated Interest/Data packet queueing delay may beimplemented, according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 2A is an illustration of an Interest packet, according to anexample embodiment.

FIG. 2B is an illustration of a Data packet, according to an exampleembodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an ICN network device/node configured tooperate according to the example embodiments presented herein, accordingto an embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of Interest and Data packet flow paths throughthe ICN network node of FIG. 3, according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a detailed illustration of data structures corresponding tothe ICN network node data structures introduced in FIG. 3, according toan example embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a method of determining, tracking, andreporting Interest and Data packet queuing delays performed in the nodeof FIG. 3, according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a method of determining, tracking, andreporting accumulated Interest and Data packet queuing delays that isperformed in the node of FIG. 3, when the network node also operates asa data responder, according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a method of performing congestion control at aconsumer of FIG. 3, according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a consumer device shown in FIG. 1,according to an example embodiment.

DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS Overview

A network device, among network devices configured to performinformation centric networking (ICN) in an ICN network, receives anInterest from a consumer as the Interest traverses an Interest path to adata responder. The Interest requests data by name and indicates anaccumulated Interest queuing delay experienced by the Interest on theInterest path. The network device enqueues and dequeues the Interest toand from an Interest queue, respectively, and determines a localInterest queuing delay between the enqueing and dequeuing. The networkdevice increases the indicated accumulated Interest queuing delay in theInterest by the local Interest queueing delay, and forwards the Interestalong the Interest path. The network device receives a data packet thatsatisfies the Interest as the data packet traverses a data path inreverse of the Interest path. The data packet indicates an accumulateddata queuing delay experienced by the data on the data path. The networkdevice enqueues the data packet to a data queue and dequeues the datapacket from the data queue. The network device determines a local dataqueuing delay between the enqueuing of the data packet and the dequeuingof the data packet, increases the indicated accumulated data queuingdelay in the data packet by the local data queuing delay, and forwardsthe data packet along the data path.

Example Embodiments

Information-Centric Networking (ICN) uses stateful (i.e., state-based)forwarding of Interest and Data packets within an ICN network, as willbe described in detail below. Examples of ICN include both Named DataNetworking (NDN) and Content-Centric Networking (CCN). Embodimentspresented herein track Interest and Data packet queuing delays andexploit active queue management (AQM), where available in ICN networksto improve congestion control and, correspondingly, performance in termsof throughput and latency. Conventional ICN networks do not take fulladvantage of information regarding queueing delays experienced by theInterest and Data packets in ICN congestion control nodes for moreeffective congestion control.

The embodiments presented herein determine, track, and report anaccumulated round-trip queueing delay experienced in Interest/Dataexchanges. An application running on an ICN network then uses thereported accumulated round-trip queueing delay to determine whetherlonger-than-expected round-trip times (RTTs) for the Interest/Dataexchanges are due to propagation/serialization delay, applicationprocessing delay, or queueing delay (each defined below). Further, arelatively large portion of an RTT allocated to accumulated round-tripqueuing delay indicates indirectly that congestion is occurring in atleast one queue in the ICN network and packet drops may be imminent;this informs network layer congestion control in client devices toreduce packet transmission rates. The embodiments also support reportingof accumulated round-trip queuing delays with fine-grained granularityover a relatively large dynamic range of delay, which enables a moreintelligent and fine-grained approach to congestion control, e.g., usinga multiplicative decrease coefficient that is scaled to the reportedaccumulated round-trip queuing delay instead of a fixed value of, e.g.,0.5, as is used in some conventional approaches. In summary, embodimentspresented herein determine, track, and report the accumulated round-tripqueuing delay experienced by Interest/Data exchanges in an ICN network.The reported delay may then be used for intelligent, fine-grainedcongestion control.

With reference to FIG. 1, therein is a block diagram of an example ICNenvironment 100 in which embodiments to determine, track, report, andthen use Interest/Data packet queuing delays may be implemented. Suchembodiments apply equally to both NDN and CCN, which use statefulforwarding that bases packet switching and/or routing on a name ofcontent in a packet. ICN environment 100 includes at least one consumerapplication 102 (also referred to simply as “consumer” 102 or“requestor” 102) to request data, at least one data producer 104 tostore and produce the data responsive to the requests, and an ICNnetwork 106 including multiple network nodes/devices 110 (e.g., nodes(110(1), 110(2), and 110(3)) to route the data requests and data betweenthe consumer application and the data producer. Network nodes 110 may benetwork routers or switches, for example.

In ICN environment 100, communication between consumer 102, dataproducer 104, and nodes 110 may include exchanges of two types ofpackets or messages: Interest (I) and Data packet (D). Both types ofpackets/messages carry a name that identifies a piece of data (i.e., adata object) that can be transmitted in one Data packet. Consumer 102puts the name of a desired data object into an Interest and sends theInterest to producer 104 along an Interest or forward path through ICNnetwork 106. Nodes 110 use this name to forward the Interest toward dataproducer 104 along the Interest path. Path segments between adjacentnodes 110 are referred to as “path links” or simply “links.”

If the Interest reaches one of nodes 110 that has the requested dataalready stored therein (for example, because of a previous request forthe same data object), the node 110 will return a Data packet thatcontains the data object back to consumer 102 along a Data path. TheData packet includes the name of the data/content together with asignature by the producer's key that binds the name to the content. Ifno node 110 includes the data to satisfy the Interest, the Interest willbe forwarded all the way to producer 104, and producer 104 will returnthe requested data in the Data packet via network 106. The one of eitherthe node 110 or producer 104 that returns the requested data is referredto herein as the “data responder” with respect to the Interest. Thereturned Data packet follows in reverse the Interest path back toconsumer 102. Thus, the Data path is also referred to as the “reversepath” or the “inverse path” of the Interest/forward path. The forwardingof the Interest along the Interest path and of the Data packet along thereverse path by each node 110 is based on the name of the data, notsource and destination addresses as used, e.g., with Internet Protocol(IP) routing.

A round-trip time (RTT) for an Interest/Data exchange in environment 100is a period of time between a time when consumer 102 issues or sends theInterest and a time when the consumer receives the Data packet thatsatisfies the Interest. The RTT is a summation of the followingcontributory time delays: an accumulated Interest queueing delay (AIQD);an application processing delay (or simply “processing delay”); anaccumulated Data queueing delay (ADQD); and an accumulated packetpropagation time of all the links on the path.

An Interest may experience an incrementally increasing AIQD as theInterest traverses nodes 110 along the forward/Interest path fromconsumer 102 to the data responder (either data producer 104 or one ofnodes 110 that has the requested data). The AIQD is a summation of localInterest queueing delays (or sojourn times) experienced by the Interestin respective ones of nodes 110 traversed by the Interest.

The processing time is a turn-around time in the data responder, i.e.,the time between when data responder receives the Interest and when thedata responder sends the Data packet that satisfies the Interest.

A Data packet experiences an incrementally increasing ADQD as the Datapacket traverses nodes 110 along the reverse/Data path (that is areverse or inverse of the Interest path) from the data responder toconsumer 102. The ADQD is a summation of local Data queueing delaysexperienced by the Data packet in respective ones of nodes 110 traversedby the Data packet.

The propagation delay is the transit time of the Interest/Data packet inconnections or links of ICN network 106.

In an example Interest/Data exchange, an Interest traverses nodes110(1), 110(2), and 110(3) and experiences respective local Interestqueuing delays A, B, and C milliseconds (ms) in those nodes along theforward path, such that AIQD=A+B+C ms. A data responder introduces aprocessing delay of D ms to respond to the Interest. The Data packettraverses nodes 110(3), 110(2), and 110(1) and experiences respectivelocal Data queuing delays E, F, and G ms in those nodes along thereverse path, such that ADQD=E+F+G. Thus the Interest/Data exchangeincurs an accumulated round-trip queuing delay (ARTQD), whereARTQD=AIQD+ADQD (i.e., A+B+C+E+F+G), and a RTT given by the equation:RTT=ARTQD+the processing delay (i.e., D)+the propagation delay.

For nodes 110 operating in a data center, an example local Interestqueuing delay in one of the nodes may be on the order of severalmicroseconds. On the other hand, for nodes 110 operating on theInternet, an example local Interest queueing delay may be on the orderof several milliseconds.

The manner in which congestion control operates in ICN is now discussedbriefly. Unlike the Internet Protocol (IP) family of protocols, whichrelies on end-to-end congestion control (e.g. Transmission ControlProtocol (TCP), Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP), and StreamControl Transmission Protocol (SCTP)), ICN employs hop-by-hop congestioncontrol. There is a per-Interest/Data state at every hop (e.g., at everynetwork device, such as a switch or a router) of the path and,therefore, for each outstanding Interest, bandwidth for Data packetsreturning on the inverse path can be allocated. In one example,allocation is performed using simple Interest counting—by accepting oneInterest from a downstream node; implicitly this provides a guarantee(either hard or soft) that there is sufficient bandwidth on the inversepath to return one Data packet. Embodiments presented herein leveragetwo underlying capabilities of ICN. First, ICN Interest and Data packetshave a flexible and extensible encoding. This permits an inclusion ofadditional fields in the Interest and Data packets that are sufficientlylarge to indicate AIQDs and ADQDs with fine-grained granularity overwide dynamic ranges, for both the forward (i.e. Interest) path and theinverse (i.e. Data) path. Second, AQM algorithms are in general capableof either estimating, or in some cases accurately measuring andcomputing, a given queue delay, i.e., the time a packet resides in agiven queue before being transmitted from the queue (e.g., a time beforebeing placed on a hardware transmit ring, which is assumed to berelatively short and close to constant).

Leveraging the two aforementioned ICN capabilities, embodiments hereinprovide consumer 102 a way to directly obtain a report of theaccumulated round-trip queuing delay for the round trip of anInterest/Data packet, and decompose that delay into separate forward andinverse accumulated queuing delays (i.e., the AIQD and AIQD,respectively). In the embodiments, as an Interest traverses nodes 110along the forward path, each time the Interest encounters a queue in agiven node, a field in the Interest that indicates the AIQD is increasedby a local Interest queue delay associated with that queue. Eventually,when the Interest reaches a data responder (either producer 104, or anintermediate one of nodes 110 having a cache of the data), the indicatedAIQD has accounted for all of the local Interest queue delaysexperienced by the Interest along the forward path, and thus theindicated AIQD is at its maximum value for that forward path. Thismaximum AIQD value is copied into a corresponding field in the resultingData packet by the data responder. As the Data packet traverses areverse path back to consumer 102, each time the Data packet encountersa queue in a given one of nodes 110, another field in the Data packetthat indicates the ADQD is increased by a local Data queue delayassociated with that queue.

As described above, the embodiments presented herein keep track ofaccumulated queuing delays along both the forward and reverse paths,i.e., the AIQD and ADQD, respectively. To do this, a new field isdefined in the Interest, and two new fields are defined in the Datapacket, as follows: the Interest includes a new field that contains orindicates the AIQD; and, the Data packet includes (i) a new field thatindicates the ADQD, and (ii) a new field that copies the indicated AIQD(from the Interest received at the data responder). In addition, theData packet may also include a third new field that indicates theprocessing delay experienced at the data responder.

With reference to FIG. 2A, there is an illustration of an example of anInterest packet 200 (i.e., Interest 200) formatted to support theembodiments presented herein. Interest 200 includes: a content name 206of the requested data; and a field 208 to carry an AIQD value. Incertain embodiments, Interest 200 may also include a selector. In agiven Interest that traverses ICN network nodes 110, AIQD 208 isincreased by the local Interest queuing delay experienced at each node.AIQD may be represented as a multi-bit integer field that spans adynamic range of AIQD values. In an embodiment, AIQD 208 may berepresented as a 32-bit integer field, where the least-significant-bit(LSB) is one or several microseconds. Other bit-widths and timingresolutions are possible.

With reference to FIG. 2B, there is an illustration of an example of aData packet 220 (i.e., Data 220). Data 220 includes: content name 222for the data contained in the Data; a signature 224, signed information226; and data or content 230 carried in the Data. Data 220 also includesa field 232 to indicate the AIQD received in an Interest at a given dataresponder, a field 234 to indicate the ADQD, and an optional field 236to indicate processing delay (PD) (i.e., turn-around time) experiencedat the given data responder. ADQD may be represented as a multi-bitinteger field that spans a dynamic range of ADQD values. In anembodiment, each of fields 232-236 is a 32-bit integer field, where theleast-significant-bit (LSB) is one or several microseconds. Otherbit-widths and LSB timing resolutions are possible.

Before embodiments to determine, track, report, and use Interest/Datapacket queuing delay are described in detail, an example architectureand operation of one of network nodes 110 in which the embodiments maybe implemented is described with reference to FIGS. 3-5.

Reference is now made to FIG. 3, which is a block diagram of an exampleICN node or network device 300 representative of each of ICN nodes 110in ICN environment 100. ICN node 300 may be a network device, such as arouter or switch, which has Interest and Data packet forwardingcapabilities, as well as computing/data processing capabilities toimplement the queuing delay embodiments described herein. To this end,ICN node 300 includes a plurality of network ports or faces 301-1through 301-N (also referred to as “interfaces”) to receive andforward/transmit Interests and Data packets, a packet forwarding unit302 to route the Interest and Data packets between the networkports/faces, a processor 303 (or multiple processors), memory 304, andclocks/timers 303 a controlled and accessed by processor 303.

Memory 304 may include read only memory (ROM), random access memory(RAM), magnetic disk storage media devices, optical storage mediadevices, flash memory devices, electrical, optical, or otherphysical/tangible (non-transitory) memory storage devices. The processor303 is, for example, a microprocessor or a microcontroller that executesinstructions stored in memory. Thus, in general, memory 304 may includeone or more tangible computer readable storage media (e.g., a memorydevice) encoded with software comprising computer executableinstructions and when the software is executed (by the processor 304) itis operable to perform the operations described herein. For example,memory 304 stores Control logic 305 to provide overall control ofnetwork node 300 and Queue Delay logic 306 to perform queue delaydetermining, tracking, and reporting as described herein. Either Controllogic 305 or Queue Delay logic 306 may include a Forwarding Strategy(FS) module 307 that operates in conjunction with packet forwarding unit302 to implement an adaptive forwarding strategy, which determineswhether, when, and where to forward each Interest packet.

Memory 304 also stores data 308 produced and/or used by logic 305-307.In certain embodiments, Data 308 includes one or more of data structuresas shown in FIG. 3. A Pending Interest Table (PIT) 310 stores entriesfor pending/received Interests that have not yet been satisfied, whereeach entry includes the data name carried in the Interest together withnode incoming and outgoing faces/interfaces traversed by the Interest. AForwarding Information Base (FIB) 312 stores name-prefix based routinginformation. A Content Store (CS) 314 caches or stores Data that hasbeen retrieved from a data responder (e.g., data producer 104 or otherone of upstream nodes 110) in a most recent Interest/Data retrievalcycle, or has already been retrieved in a previous data retrieval cycle.Multiple Interest queues (IQ) 316 queue Interests received at node 300for subsequent processing, including to be forwarded to next nodes. Inan embodiment, Interest queues 316 include one or more separate outgoing(or forwarding) Interest queues associated with each of faces 301 fromwhich the queued Interests are to be forwarded to a next hop. Also,Interest queues 316 may include one or more separate incoming Interestqueues 316 associated with each of faces 301 on which the Interests arereceived. Multiple Data queues (DQ) 316 queue Data packets received atnode 300 to be forwarded to next nodes. In an embodiment, Data queues316 include one or more separate Data queues associated with each offaces 301 from which the queued Data packets are to be forwarded and/orfrom which the Data packets are received. Delay values 320 includedetermined local Interest/Data packet queuing delays, AIQD values, andADQD values.

PIT 310 and FIB 312 together store state information, including nodeingress and egress face information, for each Interest received and sentby ICN node 300 while traversing their respective paths in network 106so that Data satisfying the Interest may trace the same path in reverseback to consumer 102 (i.e., the inverse path). This is referred to as“stateful forwarding” in an ICN network.

Processor 303 may use clocks/timers 303 a to assist with measuringqueuing delays in support of embodiments described herein.

The general operation of ICN node 300 is now described with reference toFIG. 4, with continued reference to FIG. 3. FIG. 4 shows an Interestflow 404 through node 300 in an upstream or forward direction fromconsumer 102 to producer 104, and a resulting Data flow 408 through thenode in a downstream or reverse/inverse direction. When an Interestarrives at node 300, the node enqueues the Interest to one of queues316, i.e., stores the Interest in the queue, where the Interest joinsother enqueued Interests awaiting Interest processing. Also, node 300checks Content Store 314 for matching data; if matching data exists, thenode returns the Data packet on the interface/face of the node fromwhich the Interest came. Otherwise node 300 looks up the name in PIT310, and if a matching entry exists, it simply records the incominginterface of this Interest in the PIT entry.

In the absence of a matching PIT entry, node 300 determines an outgoingface among faces 310 on which to forward the Interest toward the dataproducer, and enqueues the Interest to one of Interest queues 316 (e.g.,an outgoing Interest queue) associated with the determined outgoingface. The queued Interest remains in the one of Interest queues 316awaiting a forwarding opportunity. Node 300 may determine the outgoingface on which to forward the Interest (and hence the associated Interestqueue) based on forwarding face information already recorded in a PITentry, and/or based on information in FIB 312 as well as the node'sadaptive forwarding strategy as implemented by Forwarding Strategy (FS)module 320. When the Interest forwarding opportunity arises, node 300dequeues the Interest from the one of Interest queues 316 (e.g., removesthe Interest from the queue) and forwards the Interest toward the dataproducer via the associated one of outgoing faces 301. Note that thedequeuing operation may not actually remove the Interest from the queue,but may simply access the Interest and copy it to the outgoing face.When node 300 receives multiple Interests for the same name from thedownstream nodes, in one embodiment the node may forward only the firstof the received Interests upstream toward data producer 104, and dropthe other duplicative Interests after recording the incoming face in thecorresponding PIT entry. FIB 312 is populated by a name-prefix basedrouting protocol, and can have multiple output interfaces for eachprefix.

Forwarding Strategy module 320 may decide to drop or negativelyacknowledge an Interest in certain situations, e.g., if all upstreamlinks are congested or the Interest is suspected to be part of amalicious attack. For each Interest, Forwarding Strategy module 320 mayretrieve the longest-prefix matched entry from FIB 312, and decide whenand where to forward the Interest. Content Store 314 is a temporarycache of Data packets node 300 has received. Because a Data packet ismeaningful independent of where it comes from or where it is forwarded,it can be cached to satisfy future Interests.

When a Data packet arrives at node 300, the node may find a matching PITentry listing all downstream faces among faces 301 from which the Datapacket is to be forwarded, and enqueues the Data packet to one or moreof Data Queues 318 associated with each of the downstream faces recordedin the PIT entry. In the one or more of Data Queues 318 the Data packetjoins other enqueued Data packets awaiting Data packet processing andforwarding. When the opportunity arises, node 300 dequeues the Datapacket from the one or more of Data Queues 318, and forwards the Datapacket on all of the downstream faces associated with the queues. Thedequeuing operation may simply access the Data packet and copy it to anoutgoing face, not actually remove the Data packet from the queue. Node300 may remove that PIT entry, and optionally caches the Data in ContentStore 314. Data packets always take the reverse path of Interests, and,in the absence of packet loss, one Interest packet results in one Datapacket that satisfies the Interest on each link, providing flow balance.To fetch large content objects that comprise multiple packets, Interestsprovide a similar role in controlling traffic flow as TCP ACKs in theInternet: a fine-grained feedback loop controlled by the consumer of thedata. Neither Interest nor Data packets carry any host or interfaceaddresses. ICN routes forward Interest packets toward data producersbased on the names carried in the packets, and forward Data packets toconsumers based on the PIT state information set up by the Interests ateach hop. This Interest/Data packet exchange symmetry allows ahop-by-hop control loop.

With reference to FIG. 5, there is depicted a detailed illustration ofexample data structures corresponding to the node data structuresintroduced in connection with FIG. 3. Also depicted in FIG. 5 areexample node interfaces/faces F1-F3 for receiving and sending Interestsand Data to satisfy the Interest. Ingress and egress faces F1-F3 for agiven Interest and Data corresponding to that Interest are tracked inPIT 310 and FIB 312.

In PIT 310, each PIT entry, which is populated based on a correspondingInterest, may include a name prefix carried in the Interest, and a nodeinterface/face from which the Interest was received.

In FIB 312, each FIB entry may include the above-mentioned prefix, alist of node interfaces/faces on which the Interest associated with agiven data object name may be forwarded.

In Content Store 314, each entry may include a name of the content inthat entry, the data content, and, in some embodiments, an Actual DataSize of the data content, in bytes, for example.

Data structures in node 300 may also include an index (not shown) thatpoints to corresponding entries for a given Interest/Data in each ofContent Store 314, PIT 310, and FIB 312.

Data queues 318 store queued Data packets received from, and to beforwarded to, the associated faces F1-F3 and content store 314. Interestqueues 316 store queued Interests received from, and to be forwarded to,the associated faces F1-F3.

Various embodiments directed to determining, tracking, reporting, andusing accumulated Interest/Data packet queuing delay are summarized inmethods described below in connection with FIGS. 6-8.

With reference to FIG. 6, a flowchart is shown for a method 600 ofdetermining, tracking, and reporting Interest and Data packet queuingdelays that is performed, for example, in node 300 (the “node”) shown inthe previous figures. Reference is also made to FIGS. 1-5 for purposesof the description of the flowchart of FIG. 6.

Node 300 implements stateful forwarding of packets such that the nodestores state information that associates incoming and outgoing faces ofthe node traversed by an Interest with a name of data requested by theInterest, to enable (i) forwarding of the Interest along the path to thedata responder (e.g., data producer 104), and (ii) forwarding of a Datapacket that satisfies the Interest along a data path in reverse toconsumer 102.

At 605, node 300 receives an Interest as the Interest traverses anInterest path from consumer 102 to a data responder. The Interestincludes field 208 to indicate the AIQD experienced by the Interest thusfar along the Interest path.

At 610, node 300 determines which of face(s) 301 from which to forwardthe received Interest, and then enqueues the Interest to one of theoutgoing/forwarding) Interest queues 316 associated with the determinedforwarding face.

At 615, node 300 determines a local Interest queuing delay between theenqueue operation and an anticipated dequeue operation. Any known orhereafter developed method to determine queuing delay may be used at615. For example, a queuing method that maintains a queue depth (inbytes) may be used to estimate the queuing delay at the time theInterest is enqueued based on a current queue depth and an Interesttransmission link bandwidth. Also, methods that in a TCP/IP network areused to provide Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) can similarlyprovide an estimate by assigning a queuing delay Interests that wouldhave been ECN marked, using queue size threshold values configured forECN as a baseline queuing delay. Additionally, queuing delay may bemeasured directly using timers as a difference between a time when theInterest is enqueued and a time when the Interest is dequeued.

At 620, node 300 increases the indicated AIQD by the determined localInterest queueing delay. That is, the determined local Interest queuingdelay is added to the indicated AIQD.

At 625, node 300 dequeues the Interest from the one of Interest queues316 and forwards the Interest along the Interest path. In an alternativeembodiment, node 300 may determine the local Interest queuing delayafter the Interest is dequeued.

At 630, node 300 receives a Data packet that satisfies the Interest asthe Data packet traverses a data path in reverse of the Interest path,i.e., from the data responder to consumer 102. The Data packet includesfield 232 to indicate the total AIQD experienced by the correspondingInterest along the Interest path, field 234 to indicate the ADQDexperienced by the Data packet thus far along the data path, andoptionally field 236 to indicate the processing delay of the dataresponder.

At 635, node 300 enqueues and then dequeues the data packet to and fromone of Data queues 318, respectively.

At 640, node 300 determines a local data queuing delay between the dataenqueue and dequeue operations.

At 645, node 300 increases the indicated ADQD by the local data queuingdelay.

At 650, node 300 forwards the Data packet along the data path.

With reference to FIG. 7, a flowchart is shown of method 700 fordetermining, tracking, and reporting accumulated Interest and Datapacket queuing delays that is performed in node 300, when the networknode also operates as a data responder. Reference is also made to FIGS.1-5 for purposes of the description of the flowchart of FIG. 7.

At 705, similar to 605 in FIG. 6, node 300 receives an Interest thatoriginated at consumer 102. The Interest indicates an AIQD experiencedby the Interest thus far.

At 710, node 300 enqueues the Interest to one of Interest queues 316.

At 715, node 300 determines if data satisfying the Interest resides incontent store 314 (i.e. in data cache 314).

At 720, if it is determined that the data does not reside in contentstore 314, node 300 dequeues the Interest and performs operations615-650 of method 600 described above in connection with FIG. 6 toforward the Interest to a next node.

At 725, if it is determined that the data does reside in content store314, node 300 performs next operations 730-740.

At 730, node 300 retrieves the data from content store 314.

At 735, node 300 determines a processing delay between the time when theInterest was received and the time when the Data packet responsive tothe Interest is expected to be forwarded from the node (now the dataresponder) to consumer 102.

At 740, node 300 generates a Data packet that includes the retrieveddata, the indicated AIQD copied from the Interest, an indicated ADQDthat is initialized to zero, and the processing delay.

At 745, node 300 forwards the Data packet to consumer 102 on a data paththat is a reverse of the Interest path for that Data packet.

Improvements in congestion control based on reported accumulatedInterest/Data delays are now described. In conventional ICN networks,assessment of congestion is performed relative to each network devicequeue based on separate parameters that may or may not provide useful orcorrect assessment of congestion. Also, a lack of dynamic range andgranularity in the representation of delays (e.g., delays may berepresented as a single bit) forces the end-to-end transport to assesscongestion by packet counting, resulting in less accurate congestionmeasurement and consequent slower response to changes in congestion.Advantageously, embodiments presented herein make it possible todisentangle three independent contributors to round-trip Interest/Datapacket exchange time, namely: the propagation time, application servicetime (i.e., processing delay), and the accumulated round-trip(Interest/Data packet) queuing delay. If the round-trip Interest/Datapacket exchange time increases (or decreases) without affecting theround-trip accumulated queuing delay, this indicates either a change inthe propagation time or a change in the processing delay rather thanincreased congestion. Conversely, if the round-trip accumulated queuingdelay increases, this will be reflected in the round-trip time for theInterest/Data packet exchange, but the queuing delay can be separatelyaccounted for.

In the absence of explicit signaling/measurement as described herein,congestion in a distributed system essentially may be detected by one oftwo means: (1) packet loss; and (2) an increase in round-trip time. Forpacket loss, it is difficult to determine the difference between packetloss due to congestion and packet loss due to many other causes, such asmisrouting, link errors, and the like. For increase in round-trip time,it is difficult to determine the difference between path changes orincreased processing delay and increased round-trip accumulated queuingdelay. Using embodiments presented herein, a congestion controlalgorithm may respond directly to an increase or a decrease in theround-trip accumulated queuing delay, and do so in proportion to amagnitude of that change rather than depending on, e.g., a single bitcongestion indicator. A larger increase in round-trip accumulatedqueuing delay from successive Interest/Data exchanges indicates a needto slow down more quickly than a small increase in round-tripaccumulated queuing delay. This results in improved congestion controlthat provides better performance than conventional congestion control,which needs multiple packets and a way to “count” or otherwise thresholdExplicit Congestion Notification (ECN) marks, or that only has a fixeddecrease coefficient (e.g., 0.5) and conservative increase (one packetper RTT). Congestion control based on round-trip accumulated queuingdelay as reported to a consumer in embodiments described herein may bothsafely ramp up more quickly, and be either less or more conservative inramping down due to the dynamic range provided through the reportedround-trip accumulated queuing delay.

With reference to FIG. 8, there is a flowchart of a method 800 forperforming congestion control at a consumer. Reference is made to FIGS.1-5 for purposes of the description of FIG. 8.

At 805, consumer 102 sends a first Interest with the indicated AIQD=0,and starts a timer when the first Interest is sent. Consumer receives afirst data packet that satisfies the first Interest, and stops thetimer. The first data packet includes AIQD field 232 and AIQD field 234,which together indicate a first round-trip accumulated queuing delay(e.g., AIQD+ADQD) for the first Interest and Data packet exchange.Additionally, the first data packet may include PTD field 236. The timerindicates a first round-trip time for the first Interest/Data packetexchange.

At 810, consumer 102 sends a second Interest with the indicated AIQD=0,and restarts the timer. Consumer 102 receives a second data packet thatsatisfies the second Interest, and stops the timer. AIQD field 232 andADQD field 234 of the second data packet indicate a second round-tripaccumulated queuing delay for the second Interest and Data packetexchange. The timer indicates a second round-trip time for the secondInterest/Data packet exchange.

At 815, consumer 102 determines a difference between the first andsecond round-trip queuing delay times.

At 820, consumer 102 performs congestion control based on the determineddifference between the first and second round-trip accumulated queuingdelays. For example, consumer 102 adjusts (e.g., increases or decreases)a rate at which the requestor sends next Interests in inverse proportionto the difference between the first and second round-trip accumulatedqueuing delays. Changes in round-trip accumulated queuing delaysreported with a fine-grained granularity over an expansive dynamic rangecorrespondingly result in proportional fine-grained changes in Interest(and Data packet) transmission/forwarding rates over that dynamic range.

In addition, consumer 102 may separate the first and second round-triptimes from their corresponding first and second round-trip queuing delaytimes, and use that information to make further congestion controldecisions, as described above.

With reference to FIG. 9, a block diagram is shown for a device that mayserve or operate as a consumer 102. Consumer 102 includes a networkinterface unit 900 configured to enable network communications to sendInterests and receive Data packets to and from network 106. One or moreprocessors 910 are provided that execute software stored in memory 920.The processor(s) 910 is/(are) for example, a microprocessor ormicrocontroller. To this end, the memory 920 stores instructions forcontrol logic 930. When the one or more processors 910 execute controllogic 930, consumer 102 performs the operations described herein,including operations for congestion control method 800.

Memory 920 may comprise read only memory (ROM), random access memory(RAM), magnetic disk storage media devices, optical storage mediadevices, flash memory devices, electrical, optical, or otherphysical/tangible memory storage devices. Thus, in general, the memory920 may comprise one or more tangible (non-transitory) computer readablestorage media (e.g., a memory device) encoded with software comprisingcomputer executable instructions and when the software is executed (bythe processor(s) 910) it is operable to perform the operations describedherein.

In summary, the Interest/Data exchange paradigm of ICN provides anopportunity for improvements to congestion control in ICN. Theimprovements include determining, tracking, reporting, and usingaccumulated Interest/Data packet queueing delays. Indications ofaccumulated Interest/Data packet queueing delay provide accurateindications of congestion with increased granularity and dynamic range,which may be used to enhance congestion control in ICN.

In one form, a method is provided comprising: at a network device amongnetwork devices configured to perform information centric networking(ICN) in an ICN network: receiving an Interest from a consumer as theInterest traverses an Interest path to a data responder, the Interestrequesting data by name and indicating an accumulated Interest queuingdelay experienced by the Interest on the Interest path; enqueuing theInterest to an Interest queue and dequeuing the Interest from theInterest queue; determining a local Interest queuing delay between theenqueing and dequeuing; increasing the indicated accumulated Interestqueuing delay in the Interest by the local Interest queueing delay; andforwarding the Interest along the Interest path.

In another form, an apparatus is provided comprising: a plurality ofnetwork faces to send and receive information centric networking (ICN)packets to and from an ICN network; a packet forwarding unit to forwardthe ICN packets between the network faces; and a processor coupled tothe forwarding unit and the network faces, wherein the processor:receives an Interest from a consumer as the Interest traverses anInterest path to a data responder, the Interest requesting data by nameand indicating an accumulated Interest queuing delay experienced by theInterest on the Interest path; enqueues the Interest to an Interestqueue and dequeues the Interest from the Interest queue; determines alocal Interest queuing delay between the enqueue and dequeue operations;increases the indicated accumulated Interest queuing delay in theInterest by the local Interest queueing delay; and forwards the Interestalong the Interest path.

In yet another form, a computer program product is provided. Thecomputer program product includes computer readable storage mediaencoded with instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause theprocessor to receive an Interest from a consumer as the Interesttraverses an Interest path to a data responder, the Interest requestingdata by name and indicating an accumulated Interest queuing delayexperienced by the Interest on the Interest path; enqueue the Interestto an Interest queue and dequeue the Interest from the Interest queue;determine a local Interest queuing delay between the enqueue and dequeueoperations; increase the indicated accumulated Interest queuing delay inthe Interest by the local Interest queueing delay; and forward theInterest along the Interest path.

The above description is intended by way of example only.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: at a network device amongnetwork devices comprising an Interest path configured to performinformation centric networking (ICN) in an ICN network: receiving anInterest from a consumer as the Interest traverses the Interest path toa data responder, the Interest requesting data by name and indicating anaccumulated Interest queuing delay experienced by the Interest on theInterest path, wherein the accumulated Interest queuing delay is asummation of local Interest queuing delays experienced by the Interestin respective ones of the network devices; enqueuing the Interest to anInterest queue and dequeuing the Interest from the Interest queue;determining a local Interest queuing delay between the enqueuing anddequeuing; increasing the indicated accumulated Interest queuing delayin the Interest by the local Interest queueing delay; determiningwhether data satisfying the Interest resides in a data cache; and if itis determined that data satisfying the Interest resides in the datacache: retrieving the data satisfying the Interest from the data cache;generating a data packet that includes the retrieved data, the indicatedaccumulated Interest queuing delay, and an indicated accumulated dataqueuing delay that is initialized to zero; and forwarding the datapacket to the consumer along a path that is a reverse of the Interestpath.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a datapacket that satisfies the Interest as the data packet traverses a datapath in reverse of the Interest path, the data packet indicating anaccumulated data queuing delay experienced by the data on the data path;enqueuing the data packet to a data queue and dequeuing the data packetfrom the data queue; determining a local data queuing delay between theenqueuing of the data packet and dequeuing of the data packet;increasing the indicated accumulated data queuing delay in the datapacket by the local data queuing delay; and forwarding the data packetalong the data path.
 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:storing state information that associates incoming faces and outgoingfaces of the network device traversed by the Interest with the name ofthe data to enable forwarding of the Interest along the path to the dataresponder and the forwarding of the data packet along the data path inreverse to the consumer.
 4. The method of claim 2, wherein the datapacket indicates the accumulated Interest queuing delay, the accumulateddata queuing delay, a content name for the data, a signature, and signedinformation including a publisher identification and a key locator. 5.The method of claim 4, wherein: the Interest includes a multiple-bitfield to represent a range of different accumulated Interest queuingdelay values from a first minimum value to a first maximum value; andthe data packet includes a multiple-bit field to represent a range ofdifferent accumulated data queuing delay values from a second minimumvalue to a second maximum value.
 6. The method of claim 2, wherein thedata packet also indicates a processing delay of the data producer,wherein the processing delay represents a time difference between afirst time when the producer received the Interest from the Interestpath and a second time when the producer provided the data packet to thedata path.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising; if it isdetermined that data satisfying the Interest does not reside in the datacache, forwarding the Interest along the Interest path.
 8. The method ofclaim 7, wherein if it is determined that data satisfying the Interestresides in the data cache, the method further comprises: determining aprocessing delay between a time when the Interest was received and atime when the data packet is to be forwarded, wherein the generatingincludes generating the data packet to include a field that indicatesthe processing delay.
 9. An apparatus comprising: a plurality of networkfaces comprising an Interest path to send and receive informationcentric networking (ICN) packets to and from an ICN network; a packetforwarding unit to forward the ICN packets between the network faces;and a processor coupled to the forwarding unit and the network faces,wherein the processor: receives an Interest from a consumer as theInterest traverses the Interest path to a data responder, the Interestrequesting data by name and indicating an accumulated Interest queuingdelay experienced by the Interest on the Interest path, wherein theaccumulated Interest queuing delay is a summation of local Interestqueuing delays experienced by the Interest in respective ones of thenetwork devices; enqueues the Interest to an Interest queue and dequeuesthe Interest from the Interest queue; determines a local Interestqueuing delay between the enqueue and dequeue operations; increases theindicated accumulated Interest queuing delay in the Interest by thelocal Interest queueing delay; determines whether data satisfying theInterest resides in a data cache; and if it is determined that datasatisfying the Interest resides in the data cache: retrieves the datasatisfying the Interest from the data cache; generates a data packetthat includes the retrieved data, the indicated accumulated Interestqueuing delay, and an indicated accumulated data queuing delay that isinitialized to zero; and forwards the data packet to the consumer alonga path that is a reverse of the Interest path.
 10. The apparatus ofclaim 9, wherein the processor further: receives a data packet thatsatisfies the Interest as the data packet traverses a data path inreverse of the Interest path, the data packet indicating an accumulateddata queuing delay experienced by the data on the data path; enqueuesthe data packet to a data queue and dequeues the data packet from thedata queue; determines a local data queuing delay between the enqueueand dequeue operations of the data packet; increases the indicatedaccumulated data queuing delay in the data packet by the local dataqueuing delay; and forwards the data packet along the data path.
 11. Theapparatus of claim 10, wherein the processor further: stores stateinformation that associates incoming faces and outgoing faces of thenetwork device traversed by the Interest with the name of the data toenable forwarding of the Interest along the path to the data responderand the forwarding of the data packet along the data path in reverse tothe consumer.
 12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the received datapacket indicates the accumulated Interest queuing delay, the accumulateddata queuing delay, a content name for the data, a signature, and signedinformation including a publisher identification and a key locator. 13.The apparatus of claim 12, wherein: the Interest includes a multiple-bitfield to represent a range of different accumulated Interest queuingdelay values from a first minimum value to a first maximum value; andthe data packet includes a multiple-bit field to represent a range ofdifferent accumulated data queuing delay values from a second minimumvalue to a second maximum value.
 14. The apparatus of claim 9, whereinthe processor further; if it is determined that data satisfying theInterest does not reside in the data cache, forwards the Interest alongthe Interest path.
 15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein if it isdetermined that data satisfying the Interest resides in the data cache,the processor further: determines a processing delay between a time whenthe Interest was received and a time when the data packet is to beforwarded, wherein the processor generates the data packet to include afield that indicates the processing delay.
 16. A non-transitory tangiblecomputer readable storage media encoded with instructions that, whenexecuted by a processor of a network device among network devicescomprising an Interest path configured to perform information centricnetworking (ICN) in an ICN network, cause the processor to: receive anInterest from a consumer as the Interest traverses the Interest path toa data responder, the Interest requesting data by name and indicating anaccumulated Interest queuing delay experienced by the Interest on theInterest path, wherein the accumulated Interest queuing delay is asummation of local Interest queuing delays experienced by the Interestin respective ones of the network devices; enqueue the Interest to anInterest queue and dequeue the Interest from the Interest queue;determine a local Interest queuing delay between the enqueue and dequeueoperations; increase the indicated accumulated Interest queuing delay inthe Interest by the local Interest queueing delay; determine whetherdata satisfying the Interest resides in a data cache; and if it isdetermined that data satisfying the Interest resides in the data cache:retrieve the data satisfying the Interest from the data cache; generatea data packet that includes the retrieved data, the indicatedaccumulated Interest queuing delay, and an indicated accumulated dataqueuing delay that is initialized to zero; and forward the data packetto the consumer along a path that is a reverse of the Interest path. 17.The computer readable storage media of claim 16, further comprisinginstructions to cause the processor to: receive a data packet thatsatisfies the Interest as the data packet traverses a data path inreverse of the Interest path to the consumer, the data packet indicatingan accumulated data queuing delay experienced by the data on the datapath; enqueue the data packet to a data queue and dequeue the datapacket from the data queue; determine a local data queuing delay betweenthe data enqueue and dequeue operations; increase the indicatedaccumulated data queuing delay in the data packet by the local dataqueuing delay; and forward the data packet along the data path.
 18. Thecomputer readable storage media of claim 17, wherein the data packetindicates the accumulated Interest queuing delay, the accumulated dataqueuing delay, a content name for the data, a signature, and signedinformation including a publisher identification and a key locator. 19.The computer readable storage media of claim 18, wherein: the Interestincludes a multiple-bit field to represent a range of differentaccumulated Interest queuing delay values from a first minimum value toa first maximum value; and the data packet includes a multiple-bit fieldto represent a range of different accumulated data queuing delay valuesfrom a second minimum value to a second maximum value.
 20. The computerreadable storage media of claim 16, further comprising instructions tocause the processor to; if it is determined that data satisfying theInterest does not reside in the data cache forward the Interest alongthe Interest path.